82

p September 17-18, 1942

p Comrades Kuznetsov and Povarov,

p Greetings friends. We’re mowing down the Germans surrounding us. Not a step backward-that is my duty and that is my nature....

p My regiment hasn’t disgraced itself and won’t disgrace the Soviet Army.

p I sent a letter to a skunk of a German officer. We are hitting you hard and we’ll carry on hitting you all the harder.

p Comrade Kuznetsov, if I die-my only request is about my family. Another regret is that I can’t smash any more of these bastards in the teeth, that is, I’m sorry I have to die so soon with only 85 Gerries to my tally.

For our Soviet Homeland, lads, smash the enemy!

p Ivan Shcherbina was born in Dnepropetrovsk in October 12, 1908. On graduating from the Dniepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute he continued his studies at a Communist Party Institute before serving in the N.K.V.D. (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) from 1935. In 1939 he took part in the liberation of Western Ukraine. Just before the war he passed out from the Lenin Military and Political Academy. When war broke out he was appointed Commissar of the 272nd Infantry Regiment. Together with his regiment he made a hard road of retreat to the banks of the Volga.

83

During the defence of Stalingrad between the 17 and 18 September, 1942, a group of 15-20 soldiers led by a couple of officers defended the Gorky Drama Theatre. Enemy submachine-gunners under the covering fire of tanks broke into the theatre. In order to drive them out again, Ivan Shcherbina and three of his men decided to break through to the main entrance and shoot down the nazis from there. He was the first to dash from cover but was mowed down by a machine-gun burst. The bullets hit him in the neck and shoulder, smashing his carotid artery and his wind-pipe. His strength ebbing away, he managed to jot down a few words to divisional commander. Colonel Kuznetsov, and Colonel Povarov, head of the divisional political department. To his last breath he had faith in the victory of the Soviet people, and with these words fell back in his comrades’ arms.